Lice - North Hollywood,CA

Freeze 'em!

My girlfriend (and her housemate and three children) had a horrendous lice outbreak last summer. They tried a lot of the OTC remedies with no luck. It just kept on getting worse.

Then, they did mayonnaise treatments 2 x day, lice combed twice a day, vacuumed a few times a day, and put all bedding and clothing/soft toys/pillows into the drier and froze the smaller stuff, many times a week. This was to stop the risk of reinfection because lice eggs are tough little buggers.

When they went into full blown lock down mode, it was very successful. *My* philosophy? Take tiny bugs very, very seriously until there is zero risk for reinfection.

The mayonnaise / comb trick is really effective.

I would just check the hair bows for any nits, eggs and other. My 2 older girls had this late last month and I thought it was absolutely disgusting. It turns out that a lot of the closeby suburbs had big issues with them and the schools kind of expect it after vacations and time off (Christmas break). I washed all bedding in hot water, we vacuumed the mattresses every day for 2 weeks, washed any stuffed animals in the house. I threw away the brushes and bought new. We combed their hair with the special comb every day for 2 weeks to make sure we got everything out. And I had to use my nails to get some of those eggs off. Make sure the school knows so they can have the other kids checked. I used to get a notice home that there were incidences at school with lice but now with middle school, I guess they assume parents check.

I would disinfect them if you can not do so toss them. I would also check your hair. When my children got it the entire family got it. Yes more than likly they brought it for from school. You can also use tea tree oil on her head. If you have to treat more than once. oil helps them not stick as well. And the bugs it will suficate. (SP)

Good luck and God Bless!

Douse their hair with olive oil at night, place shower cap over their head, and have them sleep that way with a towel over their pillow. Do this for two weeks. The lice will suffocate. You can wash out the oil in the morning with dish detergent (it's the best grease cutter). Also, lice need human blood in order to live/survive. They die without it within 48 hours. Lice cannot jump or fly either. Just some more info. Good luck!

I would toss the combs and brushes and bows and put them in the outside garbage. My sister had lice when she was at this age and my mom along with washing in hot water, ironed the sheets and pillow cases. I would go ahead and throw your brushes away too and get new ones. I recommend washing the mattress pad too. Everything probably needs to be stripped and cleaned. oye...you have your work cut out for you. I feel for you. You'll have to alert the preschool so that they can send a notice home to other parents so they can be aware of it. When someone in my sons grade gets lice, they send home a letter (not saying who it is), but alerting all the parents that someone had lice and to be on the look out. I hope I don't have to go through that with my boys.
My friend's little sister had it really bad and she had thick beautiful hair and it had to be shaved all off and medicine put on her scalp. Her hair grew back with no problem. Lice is a mess to deal with.
I know I didn't give much information here, but I hope I've helped some. :-)

Been there, done that. Yes you can boil the brushes and hair bows. We vacuumed the car seats and then put towels over them. I would change the towels if I found any new lice in my checks, otherwise they stayed there till we knew they were gone. Otherwise, just check them every other day. I forget the timing of the life cycle, but I think it was, eggs hatch no later than 10 days, and then they lay new eggs in five days. So keep checking (with a fine tooth comb and wiping on a white towel to see if anything is there) for about 10 days. If you get any, then I would continue for 10 more to make sure they did not lay any eggs. Lice like clean hair and not oily hair, so you do not have to wash every day, unless that helps with your checking (I needed to since my daughters hair is really thick, so I could not get through unless wet and with conditioner). Lice do not like tea tree oil, so we got a shampoo with that in it. We used a homeopathic remedy from CVS to get rid of them, and it worked the first time. Good luck

Oh poor thing...you are now entering what I used to call "lockdown" mode. Everything up to and almost including the dog was bagged :( Floors vacuumed daily. One thing people miss: the coat closet or rack where coats and scarves are hung: wash or bag it all.

The thing that helped me the most though was DAILY comb outs. My daughter--and the dog--would hide when they saw me walking around with that comb in my hand.

First and foremost go to headlice.org and stop doing anything this is simply an old wives tale or a marketing thing to get you to spend even more money.

There are simple ways to get rid of them and not so much work. I have not used the shampoo in years and will never again. It is a poison and can physically harm a child.

If you wash their hair like normal, leave it wet, section it off and use a magnification tool to go through the hair inch by inch you will see stunned bugs, white nits that are empty, and nits with a black center that is a baby inside.

I use a natural bristle brush so I can see almost each individual hair from scalp to end. I have actually found black nits on the tip ends of her waist length hair.

Hi S.,

It sounds like you're doing all the things you need to. One more thing you could try is to buy a natural shampoo and conditioner with Tea Tree Oil. This has been known to prevent lice infection, as these critters don't like the smell of it. We have 2 daughters who attended schools with lice infections this past year. Neither one got it, as I religiously washed their hair (as well as mine and hubby's) with Tea Tree Oil shampoo and conditoner.

Good luck!
E.

When my daughter got lice a few years ago, we put all of her hairbows in a pillowcase and put them in the dryer. Most of them were fine,but a couple of the more delicate ones did come apart and I just threw those away.

bag everything up for 2 weeks. Also you need to make sure you retreat hair 9 days later. Do lots of vaccuming so you get any eggs that fell on the floor. A child I watch got it and then one of my kids got it last month. We treated everyone in the house. The dr said that this was the worst lice epidemic they have seen. I guess it has been constant at our dr office since august.

We just went through this too. It sucks! Have you and your husband been checked? We were and I actually had them too and didn't find out until a week later so we went though the whole process twice in one week. We actually went to Hair Wizards in Encino to get the lice out and used their shampoo/conditioner for a week and went back to be checked again. It was expensive but worth it to me. We used their spray for the couches, car seats, car interior and we washed all sheets/pillow cases/blankets in hot water. Put all the pillows in the dryer for an hour. Put all the stuffed animals in plastic bags for a couple of weeks (except the ones we need to sleep with which went in the hot water wash). We gave our cats a bath (they can't get lice but they can carry the eggs). The lice don't live on leather or plastic so we boiled combs and brushes that weren't plastic in hot water (I found directions on the internet). I think that's everything. Just keep checking periodically. Good luck. Hope this helps!